A Trick of the Light
by Lutris A
Summary: Naruto did not learn the Kage Bunshin that fateful night. Instead, he learnt an illusion, and a demon emerged from within him. Naruto despairs, and vows to master the art of illusions and rely on naught but himself. Genjutsu!Naruto, and a NaruShiz pairing
1. Naruto

**A Trick of the Light**

**By Lutris Argutiae**

**Chapter Beta'ed by Thundereaper **

_A/N: I've been bouncing this idea around my head for a while now, though it originally started back in April with a medic!Naruto idea I had. Many thanks to the people at ADD (forums. Demonsdesire. Net), and especially to Omni, who goes by Thundereaper on this site._

_Enjoy! _

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"_What is life? An illusion, a shadow, a story, and the greatest good is little enough: for all life is a dream, and dreams themselves are only dreams."_

_-Pedro Calderon de la Barca, 1600-1681_

Chapter One: Naruto

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A crackling voice peppered with radio interference sounded into a red-haired ninja's ears. "_Kouzuki, have you located the target_?"

"Negative, _taichou_. It appears that he's taken to hiding among the trees. Anything over at Gettou's end?" Kouzuki, as he was called, replied.

Another crackling voice joined the conversation. "Affirmative, _taichou_. Target located in the southern sector of the Forest. Awaiting your orders sir."

"_Good. Kouzuki, meet up with Gettou. I'll scout ahead and see if I can't cut that little brat's escape route off. Move!"_

Cursing at his partner's good fortune at finding the target, Ren forced himself to leap into the lush treetops of Konoha's woodland terrain training grounds, following directions from Gettou.

Kouzuki Ren would say he was an average Chunin. He had no special skills, except maybe his exceptional Katon jutsus, and likewise had no special features that separated him from the other Chunin and above level shinobi in Konoha's ninja squads.

Although he had no distinct traits or abilities that set him apart from his fellow colleagues, aside from an undeserved, but nearly perfect mission record born from the countless D-Rank missions his _taichou_ put him and his partner through, he had nothing to complain about.

Well, almost nothing.

Uzumaki Naruto was, indeed, something Ren had found ample time and circumstance to complain about. The loud-mouthed, foul, mischievous, thieving, annoying, time-consuming brat had very nearly ruined his day (and his undeserved nearly perfect mission record) countless times.

While the D-Rank missions themselves were degrading, Ren usually had no qualms doing them day after day since they only improved his mission record. Besides, out of the few B or A rank missions he had participated in, he had only come back with a failed mission twice; both times because of the arrival of a squad of enemy Jounin way out of his team's league.

But, when a mission concerning Uzumaki Naruto came up, it always, definitively, and inevitably ended with the cold blue ink of a failed mission stamp, even if it _was_ a D-rank mission.

It wasn't that Uzumaki Naruto was capable, or even an enemy shinobi. He was an Academy student, and a grotesquely failing one at that. No, Uzumaki Naruto was hated for his devious_ tricks_ and his ungodly and freakish _stamina_. When these two were combined, the long hours of tracking him down degraded and humiliated those who were caught in them; namely, those who chased him, or, in this and countless other cases, Kouzuki Ren.

This time however, he would not fail. No, he could not fail.

As Ren leapt through the trees to rendezvous with Gettou, he silently and solemnly vowed to himself.

He would not fail; never again would he fail his mission.

_Especially _**Mission: Subdue Prankster Uzumaki Naruto**.

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He was a ninja: a shinobi hidden in the leaves. He was a ninja who would not hesitate to accomplish his mission, no matter what the cost. He had a massive and powerful arsenal of hundreds of unbeatable jutsu at his disposal; he was an unstoppable force. He was Uzumaki Naruto, soon-to-be Hokage of Konohagakure no Sato, the Village Hidden in the Leaves.

His valor and justice was known throughout the land, and if one was asked it they knew Uzumaki Naruto, they would reply, _no, but I wish I did._ His deeds were now known throughout the village, and he was even more famous than before. It was only a matter of time before he was made Hokage, the village leader, and strongest shinobi in the village.

But, some things came before other things. Currently, he was escaping from traitorous chunins who would dare to attack the successor of the Hokage! After he had decorated and shown his superiority over the previous village leaders' monument, he had leapt away and ran to escape the clutches of the treacherous enemy Konoha nin.

He was now leaping from tree branch to tree branch, running from his pursuers. He scanned behind his back to check for the enemy; they were nowhere to be found.

Relaxing slightly, Naruto eagerly dug into his pack, retrieving his precious kunai. It had saved him on many an occasion, and would likely do so again. This time, he would use it to cut some ropes that held a multitude of traps containing a veritable plethora of scented paint and many, many smoke bombs. This would hopefully deter his pursuers; he really didn't want to resort to his massive and powerful arsenal of hundreds of unbeatable jutsu to defeat them.

Out of the corner of his eye, he detected a slight, minute movement not one hundred meters from where he was now perched. It was the enemy. They had come in hopes of taking his head- or perhaps they planned to take him alive to publicly execute him, shattering the hopes and dreams of the people of Konoha!

This would not stand with Uzumaki Naruto!

He would _not_ back down from a fight he could win! He would never give up! He would _win_.

Peering over his shoulder once more, he saw a pair of the hostile chunin jump off of their trees and rapidly enclose on his location. Sensing imminent danger, he forced energy into his legs, and leapt into the air, making his way towards the first of the ropes supporting the dangerous traps.

"NARUTO!" one of the chunin yelled from behind him, "We're going to get you this time! It's no use trying to avoid the _inevitable_!"

"Oh yeah? Well come on and catch me!" Naruto tauntingly retorted. Surprisingly, the clichéd and childish jeer only served to anger the chunin even further; _definitely not the mark of a veteran ninja_, Naruto mused.

"Ren, we're to capture him _alive_. At this rate, you'll beat him to the ground and kill him before he even thinks of trying anything." The second chunin calmly lectured the first: Ren.

"I _know_ that, Gettou. I know. But he's just so…" Ren continued anxiously.

"_Taichou_ is cutting ahead of us, remember? We'll get him." Gettou said admonishingly.

Deciding that he had stalled his opponents for a long enough time, Naruto turned to face 'Ren', looked him in the eye, and taunted him once more. "Time's up, guys! _Bye-bye_!"

With that, Naruto sliced the first of many ropes that held his homemade exploding paint balls. While they were cheap and not that great quality for weapons use, they were certainly enough for his use, and as clichéd as it was, brightly colored and foul smelling paint always served well to ruin someone's day.

With a raucous bout of irritating laughter, Naruto leapt away from his current tree branch, cutting more lengths of rope as he went.

Looking back, he saw the first chunin being drenched in bright neon green paint and smelling up a nauseous storm as he blindly cursed at the orange-clad Hokage-wannabe. Grinning, Naruto skipped off of another branch, and laughed at the shinobi who was called Ren, and pointed at him jeeringly for good measure.

Suddenly, however, his movements were halted as the back of his turned head collided with the firm chest of another shinobi; with a gasp, Naruto desperately tried to leap away, but the unknown and hostile ninja swiftly grasped his ankles, stopping his futile efforts at movement.

"_Taichou_! You made it in time!" Gettou exclaimed happily as he saw the face of his team leader.

"Yes. It appears so." The unknown shinobi replied tersely, before reaching into his hip holster and pulling out a length of bright yellow and obviously vinyl wire.

"Don't move, Uzumaki. This wire is professional shinobi weapons grade; it's sharp enough to slice you into ribbons should I feel like it." And with that, the ninja began tying the suddenly compliant Naruto up, Ren watching from behind with a satisfied glimmer in his eyes.

"Kouzuki, Gettou, we will now deliver Prankster Uzumaki Naruto to the Ninja Academy to conclude our mission. Follow me." The team leader ordered the two chunin, before turning around and preparing to jump.

"Oh, and Kouzuki."

"Yes, _taichou_?" Ren replied eagerly.

"Clean yourself up."

The leader-class ninja leapt away, carrying an uncharacteristically silent mass of blond haired flesh.

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It was with a rough manner that Naruto was dropped off at the Academy, if one could call being unceremoniously dropped onto the ground in front of the school building from the roof merely rough.

"Thank you gentlemen; mission accomplished. You can go now." A kindly voice sounded from inside dark entryway of the Academy building.

The three shinobi nodded at the voice's owner, before leaping away in the general direction of the Hokage's Tower to report the success of their mission.

"Now, Naruto. What, may I ask, moved you to oh-so-beautifully decorate the Hokages' Monument, hmm?" The voice called out.

Naruto, still bound in the vinyl bindings, craned his neck upwards to face the speaker, before loudly and excitedly exclaiming, "Mizuki Sensei!"

'Mizuki' smiled, and bent down on his knees to reach over to the knot tied behind Naruto's back.

"Why do you do these kinds of horrible things, Naruto? You know they'll just make you clean up after yourself again."

"Because I'm going to be Hokage some day, Mizuki Sensei!" Naruto exclaimed loudly, and grinned happily.

"Oh? You _always_ say that, but I don't see any villagers lining up to vote for you now, do I?" Mizuki said amusedly while slowly untying the vinyl cord.

"Besides, how does defacing the Monument relate in any way at all in your becoming a Hokage? You're just disrespecting the job, you know." Mizuki continued.

"Because some day, I'm going to be Hokage, Mizuki sensei." Naruto said with a bright grin. "And when I do that, I'm going to be the best ninja, with the best damn jutsu and be the strongest Hokage of them all! That's why I decorated the Hokage Monument. I wanted to show them that I was _better_."

As Naruto proudly exclaimed his future, Mizuki finished untying the rowdy blond, and smiled once more.

"Well," started Mizuki, "Now that you're untied, you can take your first step towards becoming the Hokage."

His eyes filled with excitement, Naruto bounced up from his place on the ground, and eagerly asked, "What? What? Whaddya mean by first step? What?"

Mizuki grinned maliciously. "Public service, Naruto. You defaced the Monument, _you_ clean it."

"WHAT!?" Naruto shouted with unholy volume.

Mizuki grinned, and pointed towards the shed at the side of the school building. "There's a mop and bucket in the shed. Happy cleaning Naruto, I'll be watching!"

Grumbling, the small boy dejectedly walked towards the shed with his shoulders slumped over to retrieve said items. Hell, he'd do anything but clean if it were anyone but Mizuki sensei that asked; but, as it was, it was Mizuki sensei that had asked him to clean up after his own mess. The silver haired teacher had helped him time and time again, and Naruto couldn't afford to lose his faith now.

He came out a minute later, still grumbling.

"I'll meet you at the Monument later, Naruto." Mizuki started, "If you get done by six, I'll treat you to Ichiraku's, how about that?"

The look on Naruto's face said it all. Chuckling, Mizuki activated his _Shunshin_ and disappeared in a swirl of wind and leaves.

"All right! Ramen, and on a weekday too!"

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It was the orange-red light of the setting sun that announced the arrival of an exhausted and grimy Uzumaki Naruto and a somewhat amused, but still tired Mizuki at the Ichiraku Ramen ramen stand, along with Naruto's loudly growling stomach.

Naruto tiredly made his way to the corner seat at the stand's counter, and plopped down on the red, vinyl covered cushion. Mizuki followed after him, and after checking over Naruto, sat down next to him, drawing out a menu list from the menu slot in front of him.

"Heya Naruto! What're you going to be eating today, kiddo?" The kindly faced owner of the ramen stand, Teuchi, asked energetically.

"Huh?" Naruto looked up blinking, then regained his senses. "Oh… I guess I'll have a miso ramen to start with then. I want a boiled egg and some pork on top too, old man!" He finished with gusto.

"Coming right up!" Teuchi grinned happily, matching Naruto's volume and enthusiasm. "And Mizuki-sensei, what'll you be having tonight?"

"I'll have a shouyu ramen then. Make the noodles a bit soft. Oh, and can I have a boiled egg on top as well, by any chance?" The silver haired instructor-shinobi said as he looked up from his menu.

"Sure thing!"

Soon enough, two steaming and hot bowls of ramen were placed in front of both teacher and student, and with a loud 'itadakimasu', the two dug in to the soup and noodles at a feverish pace.

As they ate, Mizuki spoke up from his meal, "Say, Naruto."

"What?" Naruto replied after slurping up the last of his noodles.

"What do you think of Iruka? You know, the ninja tactics teacher? He's your homeroom teacher, right?" Mizuki inquired.

"He's just a right old bastard, Mizuki-sensei. I wouldn't call him a sensei, because he's so strict. And he's extra mean to me, too!" Naruto exclaimed, not noticing a small shine in Mizuki's eye.

"He's mean to you? Why haven't I heard this before, Naruto? We eat ramen here practically every weekend, you know? Don't you trust me?" Mizuki pressed.

Naruto replied after finishing drinking the salty soup of his ramen, before taking a paper napkin from the dispenser sitting on the counter top.

"He just _is_, Mizuki sensei. He's nice to all the girls and especially Sasuke; he's even nice to Shikamaru who's so damn lazy that he doesn't even DO any assignments even though he can. But whenever I even _try _to answer a question…" Naruto muttered.

"I'm going to have to talk to him then. I'll see if I can do anything to get him to tone his lessons down a little, and I'll do something about his questionable teaching methods and favoring." Mizuki frowned.

"That's okay, Mizuki-sensei!" Naruto turned and exclaimed, "Because I'll be the next Hokage, and when I do become Hokage, I'll change all of that. I'll make sure everybody receives fairness, and nobody's shunted like I am."

"Naruto…" Mizuki started, and then turned to look away, a small, mysterious smile forming on his lips.

Several seconds passed, before Naruto's loud voice erupted once again.

"Hey old man! One more miso with a boiled egg!"

Mizuki blinked, remembering that he _had_ told Naruto he was paying for the meal, before finishing up the last of his own ramen. "I've got to get back to school to finish grading some jutsu reports, Naruto. Here's some cash; I said I'd buy today's ramen."

Mizuki fished out several slips of money and handed them to Naruto, who was already happily slurping up a new bowl of ramen.

"Hey Naruto," the teacher said, waiting for Naruto to turn around and stop chewing. When he saw that he had the blond child's attention, he continued,

"Good luck on tomorrow's Genin Exams!"

A pause followed, before Naruto cursed rather loudly, startling a pair of children who had just sat down for a bite of ramen.

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"Late for class _yet_ _again_, eh, Naruto?" The disapproving voice of Umino Iruka intoned imperiously down at the blond haired and tardy ninja student.

"It doesn't matter; now that you're late, I'll have to review what we covered in the last ten minutes. You're holding up all of your fellow classmates Naruto; this is getting way out of hand. Just get to your seat." Iruka said tersely.

"But Iruka-sensei…" Naruto started.

"Get to your seat _now_, Uzumaki." Iruka ordered sharply.

Dejectedly, Naruto climbed the stair-like levels of the classroom, and plopped down on his seat next to the silent Aburame Shino and taking out his writing utensils from his bag, not that he intended to use them at all. Class time was meant for naps, and since he already was a capable ninja, he didn't have to pay attention to Iruka's crummy classes.

Iruka insisted on giving him the cold treatment yet again even after Mizuki-sensei had given him a talk and reprimand. Since this was so, why did he, Uzumaki Naruto, have to give a rat's ass about Iruka's long and boring lectures?

Besides, it was _exam_ day. Exams were supposed to take place, not lectures. He'd studied like mad last night. He didn't have time for this stupid lecture. Naruto decidedly ignored whatever spiel Iruka was spouting at that particular moment. Honestly. Who needed supportive comments when the only thing there was to do was perform a few flashy ninjutsu techniques (he had that one definitely covered now, what with the perfection of his somewhat special henge), and walk away from the classroom with a forehead protector in hand?

Certainly not Uzumaki Naruto.

That is, certainly not Uzumaki Naruto as long as they weren't required to perform the _Bunshin no jutsu _for their jutsu examination. _Then_ he was utterly, completely, and devastatingly screwed. Henge, he could manage without a hitch; his _Oiroke no jutsu_ was testament to that fact. His _Kawarimi _wasn't that bad either, considering things.

But it was the _Bunshin_ that really got him in a corner when it came down to it. Illusions like the _henge_ he could pull off perfectly, as it seemed to come naturally to him. If he had a visible aid in front of him, he could replicate something so that his illusion would look darn close to whatever he was copying. That was what he had accomplished when he had practiced the Oiroke no jutsu: he had smattered the body proportions of various _attractive_ women he found in certain magazines in bookshops all over Konoha. This led to his experimenting on the entirety of the adult male populace of the village to find the perfect _balance_ in incapacitating enemies.

The _Bunshin_. The art of creating a non-corporeal copy of one's self, it was a basic ninja technique in the village of Konohagakure utilized in distraction and to aid in escape when encountering dire situations. Naruto couldn't manage it no matter how hard he tried; it didn't matter how much freakin' chakra he pooled into the technique, or how focused and determined enough he was to make the technique just _work_.

When even Kiba got it in the fifth try, and Naruto couldn't, it pissed him off to no end. He wanted to show everyone up, especially Sasuke, but no matter how hard he tried, the _Bunshin_ was an impossible task for him.

"_Naruto_, would you care to repeat what I just said to the rest of the class?" Iruka's voice made itself known to Naruto's irritated thought.

"Um… can you repeat… whatever you said please?" Naruto replied sheepishly.

"Listen carefully, and don't miss a _single_ word then. You're all here to take the Genin Entry Exams: all twenty-four of you. To pass, you must correctly perform one of Konoha's three basic ninjutsu, which I assume you remember from class at least, Naruto?"

"Sure! Any time, Iruka-sensei!" Naruto shot back, decidedly annoyed at how weak Iruka thought he was.

"Good. Then you'll have no problems performing the _Bunshin no jutsu_ along with everyone else today, I think? If you cant, well, that's your last shot at becoming a ninja." Iruka furrowed his eyebrows.

_Oh, shit._

"I'd appreciate it if you didn't voice your thoughts out loud, Naruto. It's disrespectful to curse in a teacher's presence." Iruka intoned, much to Naruto's annoyance and the class' amusement.

Mentally growling, Naruto nodded, and answered affirmatively through gritted teeth, fearing for the possibility of him passing now that the test was determined to be the _Bunshin_.

"Now, as I was saying before, before I was interrupted," Iruka began, "You'll be called up to perform the _Bunshin_ _no jutsu_ in front of myself and Mizuki sensei, who will be coming shortly. Your success at performing the jutsu will gain you a forehead protector of the Hidden Leaf, and earn you the title of Genin. Any more questions?"

Seeing there were no additional queries from the student body, Iruka nodded, and deftly walked out of the classroom, his sandal-clad feet patting against the wooden floor of the Academy classroom.

Several minutes later, amidst the hushed and excited chatter of the ninja-hopefuls of the class, Iruka entered the room, followed by the smiling, well-kept Mizuki. They made their way to the rather large desk that was placed at the head of the classroom, and after setting their clipboards and papers down on the wooden surface of the desk, sat down roughly at their seats.

"Now," Iruka started, "I will call each of you up one by one, and you will be asked to perform the _Bunshin_ and produce three perfect copies of yourself. Should you pass, you will be recorded as such, and will be presented with a _hitai-ate_. Should you fail, you will be recorded as such and will have to wait another year for another chance at passing the test."

Inwardly, Naruto was shaking in anxiety and worry. The _Bunshin_? Him? No, he couldn't possibly manage a single _Bunshin_, let alone three _perfect_ copies. How would he get through… how would he pass this exam, his last exam?

This was his third attempt at the Genin Exam, and by the rules of the village, shinobi hopefuls could only take the entrance exam a total of three times. Otherwise, they were determined to be detrimental to the squad even if they passed on the fourth try, since the lack of innate talent for jutsu and ninja techniques would be damaging to the force, and would just result in the hopeful being killed in action.

In any case, he had no more attempts left to his name should he fail; he _had_ to pass. He had to; it was his dream to become Hokage, the greatest ninja in the village. If he couldn't become a shinobi, then how was his dream even remotely attainable?

No, he _had_ to pass.

"Aburame, Shino."

But he couldn't manage to perform the _Bunshin_.

"Akimichi, Chouji."

If he couldn't manage to do that, how else could he make a copy of himself?

Time was running short.

"Haruno, Sakura."

What skills did he have? What could he use effectively?

"Hyuuga, Hinata."

The _Henge._

"Inuzuka, Kiba."

Could he try faking the _Bunshin _with a henge? Was it really possible?

"Nara, Shikamaru."

Yes: as long as he used the _Henge_ on some other inanimate object to transform it into an image of himself, he could do it. He could _do_ it.

"Uchiha, Sasuke."

Yes; all he needed was something to transform; what could he use a _Henge_ on? Pebbles? No, maybe… ah, his pencils.

One, two…

"Uzumaki, Naruto."

_Damn_.

Naruto picked up his two pencils and an eraser, and walked up to the front of the classroom, aware of the eyes staring at him from the back of the chamber.

"All right, Naruto. Perform the _Bunshin_, please, if you can." Iruka calmly commented.

"It's okay, Naruto, you can do it. Take your time." Mizuki interrupted.

Taking a deep breath to relax and to relieve him self of the tension that was building up in his chest, Naruto, still holding the pencils and eraser in his hands, formed the hand seal that would shape his future, and his destiny.

"_BUNSHIN NO JUTSU!"_

In that split second before he let his chakra run wild in his body, Naruto released the writing utensils that he held in his hands, forcing his body to channel chakra into a _Henge _instead of the voiced _Bunshin_.

Almost too slowly, three loud pops, accompanied by plumes of smoke, erupted at his side; he focused.

He envisioned a perfect image of him, shaping it _perfectly_, as close to the real thing as possible.

His blond hair; his ocean blue eyes and whisker-like birthmarks on his cheek. The orange clothes he was clad in; the blue highlights on his jump suit, the white ridges around his neck, and his navy blue ninja-issue sandals.

He imagined it, and envisioned it; he willed his chakra to change the shapes and forms of the pencils, and to make them bloom and blossom into perfect copies of him self, into doppelgangers of Uzumaki Naruto.

And then, as quickly as it had come, that split second passed, and the chakra he had expelled through his hand seals formed and coagulated over the writing utensils, changing and molding.

Then, when the jutsu smoke cleared, his fate was laid bare before him.

"Impressive Naruto, considering your past attitude in my class. I count… one, two… _complete_ _Bunshin_. And… the last seems to be a mite _imperfect_, Naruto." Iruka commented, at first genuinely surprised.

Naruto slowly opened his eyes; there they were: his precious _Bunshin_ substitutes. Two perfect copies of himself, and…

_Two?_

The last _Henge_'d pencil (or was it the eraser?) was clearly incomplete; it lacked any semblance of a shared image with Naruto, and was white, and pale as snow. It lay on the wooden, planked floor, apparently out of energy and clearly not up for any sort of physical action at all.

It didn't even have any color to shade its intended bright orange clothes.

Mizuki looked on at Naruto, his eyes in a calculated gaze, and his hands knitted together under his chin in rapt thought. He had a sort of sad look upon his face, and though Naruto did not notice it in his shock at the failure of his jutsu, his eyes were smiling.

"I'm sorry, Naruto," Iruka said, perhaps showing him compassion for the first time ever, "But I must mark you down for failure. The requirements state that you must create _three_ perfect copies of yourself, and while your two complete _Bunshin_ are of a quality I have yet to see even in the chunin ranks, your last doppelganger is unsatisfactory. Therefore, I must mark you as failure. I'm truly sorry, Naruto."

_Failure_.

_What? I failed? Again? But… my dream, the Hokage… failure… failure?_

"Now, you don't have to be so harsh on him, Iruka-sensei. He created copies that are of an unrivaled quality so high that even we'd have trouble telling him and them apart. I say cut him some slack; it's true he didn't make three copies, but I say the quality of the _bunshins_ makes up for it. What do you say, Iruka-sensei? I say let him pass." Mizuki said proudly.

Naruto looked up from his shell-shocked state.

A long pause followed, in which Iruka pondered over Mizuki's words carefully. It was a while before he spoke.

"I can not, in good conscience, give Naruto this forehead protector. I cannot. It is my responsibility to train those genin-hopefuls into able ninja who can at least protect themselves, and can complete their assigned missions. A single _Bunshin_ can mean life or death for a Genin under attack. I can't allow an unprepared genin out into the real world with real combat situations. I'm sorry, Naruto, but this is final."

And Naruto's world shattered.

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The sun had almost set in the village of Konoha. It was nearly dark, and the last natural daylight in the ninja village was fast disappearing in the failing light. Street lamps were flickering on, snapping and hissing as electricity began to course through them, causing the tungsten filament in them to glow brightly and blindingly.

For Naruto, the sun had already set. It was only despair and a sense of lost direction that he currently felt. It _was_ dark, and all of his natural sparkle and shine had disappeared and faded away into the depths of his dark, dead eyes.

_He'd failed the Genin Exam. Three times._

Those three times were the only chances he had at becoming a shinobi, and he had blown them all off, horribly and terribly. He had goofed off for too long while he was in class, and didn't even to the theory work behind most of the jutsus; maybe his _Bunshin_ would have been loads better had he actually paid attention in class, and he wouldn't have had to come up with an on-the-fly _Henge_ substitute for the damn technique

Maybe he would have just _passed_ like any other normal ninja-hopeful…

Maybe, maybe, just maybe…

No. There had to be a way. That Lee kid in the year above him was failing almost as badly as he was, last he had heard, but he'd still gotten Genin rank. So why couldn't Uzumaki Naruto, future Hokage and strongest ninja in the village, do the same?

Why?

No. Final was final; he'd heard what the Sandaime had said. _Three chances, and no more. _That was what the old man had told him when he had pulled a few strings and got him an entry slot in the Ninja Academy. Even Lee had passed on his second try with the rest of his classmates, so it was only Naruto who was absolutely hopeless at being a ninja, and not other really-close-to-failing students.

Maybe he just wasn't cut out to be a ninja. Everybody, and that was _everybody_, knew how to do a simple _Bunshin_. All of the Jounins, all of the Chunins, all of Genins, and of course, the old man Hokage knew as well.

But he couldn't, and that was that.

Failure.

He hated failing. Failing made him feel weak and powerless.

And he hated being weak.

Maybe it was the sheer number of times he almost got beaten up by drunk old men on the night of the annual Yondaime's festival, or maybe it was all of the unfair and harsh treatment he received from the villagers of Konoha.

He just _hated_ being weak. And he had failed the Genin Exam. That made him _worse_ than weak. It made him a loser. It made him into an ability-less incompetent.

He was _weak_.

So wrapped up was Naruto in his gloomy misery that he didn't notice someone slowly approaching form behind him in the dark. It was only the soft pattering of ninja sandals right behind his back that alerted him to Mizuki's arrival.

"Hi, Mizuki Sensei." He started, unsure of what Mizuki wanted with him at this hour, considering the current situation. It sure as hell wasn't for a bowl of ramen, he could tell by the look in Mizuki's eyes.

"Naruto… how are you holding up?" Mizuki sounded worried and careful at the same time.

"How well do you _think_, Mizuki Sensei? How well would _you_ hold up if you'd just failed your last Genin test?" Naruto darkly commented.

Mizuki took a step forward, and plopped down on the ground next to Naruto, turning to face the almost completely setting sun. He breathed deeply, and then turned his head to look at Naruto.

"You failed, true." _You should have seen it coming_ was left unsaid, but Naruto heard the unuttered words.

"I guess I deserved it for slacking off all the time. I couldn't even perform a single _Bunshin _on today's exam because of that. And because of that, my dream…" Naruto said sounding for the entire world like a man who'd lost his way.

"But you _did_ perform the _Bunshin_, Naruto. What are you saying?" Mizuki said, seemingly puzzled.

"I just henge'd some pencils and an eraser to make it look like I performed the _Bunshin_. I cheated on the exam." Naruto answered darkly, his eyes cast down towards the seemingly gloomy streets.

A short pause followed after Naruto's confession; Mizuki nodded thoughtfully, then looked at Naruto straight in the eyes.

"You didn't cheat, Naruto."

"What?" Naruto, slightly shocked, exclaimed.

"You didn't cheat. You almost passed that Exam fair and square. It's just that your lack of actual training bit you in the butt when you tried to execute that technique." Mizuki replied matter-of-factly.

"How in _hell_ did I not cheat, Mizuki Sensei?" Naruto exclaimed. "Iruka Sensei told us that it was a test for _Bunshin_, not a _Henge_-that-passes-for-a-_Bunshin."_

"In the shinobi world, that doesn't matter, Naruto." Mizuki voiced, a little seriously. Naruto blinked curiously, still uncharacteristically quiet.

"In the shinobi world, it doesn't matter if you perform a _Bunshin_ or a _Henge_ that looks like a _Bunshin_. What matters is that _you get out of a situation alive with the mission accomplished_. If you can't do something normal way, you do it with another, better way. That's how the world we live in operates.You just get the job done, and no one asks any questions." Mizuki continued, still in a serious manner.

"Do you understand, Naruto?" Mizuki questioned.

Naruto was quiet for several seconds, lost in his thoughts and Mizuki's words. It was true, he supposed, what Mizuki Sensei was saying. It really didn't matter whether you cast a _Bunshin_ to make a copy of yourself or you formed an illusion making it seem like you did. The important thing was was making the guy you were fighting confused or whatever by showing him two or more of you so you could run away.

'Yeah Mizuki Sensei, I do. It's too bad I really can't use that anymore, what with me flunking the Exam for the third time in a row." Naruto answered, finishing in a gloomy tone.

"About that, Naruto."

_What?_

"I talked to Iruka Sensei, and I kinda got it into his head that you really deserve a second, well, fourth chance. He saw how well you produced those, well, what he thought were _Bunshins_ regardless of the quantity, and we agreed that it would just be a waste of talent if you couldn't make it as a shinobi." Mizuki revealed.

_WHAT?_

"So I've decided to give you a trial mission. If you accomplish this mission successfully, you'll be granted Genin rank and will be able to join Konoha's elite military force. How's that sound?"

Naruto was dumbstruck. _Another chance? For me?_ _No, it couldn't be, could it?_

_Mizuki Sensei hasn't ever lied to me. Not once. I can trust him. So this _has_ to be true too!_

"Mizuki Sensei! Mizuki Sensei! What's the mission, what's the mission?" Unable to contain his excitement, Naruto pressed with a suddenly happy grin.

"Listen carefully, Naruto. Your mission is a retrieval mission; you are to retrieve a certain scroll for me. It's in the Hokage's office, in a special cabinet that's sealed with an advanced seal. Your mission is to use _this_," Here Mizuki dug into his weapons pouch to retrieve a small slip of paper, "and to retrieve a scroll from it."

"That's it? That's easy! Mizuki Sensei, thank you, thank you, thank you! Now I get to complete my dream of becoming a Hokage! Thank you Mizuki Sensei! " Naruto, exuberated, exclaimed.

"That's not all, Naruto," Mizuki continued, pointedly ignoring Naruto's joyous prancing, "You'll have to evade capture until we can meet at a rendezvous point that I will set up. If you can keep the scroll from getting captured and held in enemy hands, and learn a technique from it, I'll be able to guarantee you a Genin rank and a forehead protector by tomorrow."

"All right!" Naruto exclaimed, and turned to face the Hokage Monument looming in the distance.

"You old geezers better watch out, because here I come!"

_And he'd be the strongest of them all._

He didn't notice the sinister grin Mizuki sported before using his _Shunshin_ to disappear in a swirl of leaves and wind.

'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-

"Yes! I did it!" Naruto's overjoyed cry rang out in the darkness of Konoha's forests as he leapt from tree branch to tree branch.

_I can be a Genin now! I passed! All I have to do is… oh yeah, learn a technique. Shouldn't be too hard if I have to learn it in only a few hours; Mizuki Sensei wouldn't make it insanely hard, right?_

As he neared the rendezvous point, a clearing that Mizuki had shown to him a couple of weeks before close to the edge of Konoha's forest, Naruto could only barely contain his excitement. One technique, and he could pass.

One technique was all he had to master before he would become a Genin and enter the ranks of Konoha's shinobi squad. Given that this _was_ an extension of the Genin Exam, Naruto supposed that all of the techniques that were contained in the humongous scroll on his back were moderately easy to learn and master; Mizuki Sensei was looking out for him, and so he wouldn't be forced to learn an A-rank jutsu in a futile attempt at passing.

If it was Iruka that was administering the test, he could have been made to do that, but Mizuki Sensei had said that Iruka had agreed with him in giving him a second chance. If Mizuki Sensei had said it, then it was trustable and a reliable piece of information.

So it didn't matter either way. He just had to pick one flashy-looking jutsu from the huge scroll, memorize the hand seals, and practice using the technique until he got a good grasp on how to use it.

Soon, he came to the clearing where he was supposed to meet Mizuki Sensei. He had said he would come around at nine thirty sharp, so that left about two hours and a half to find a good technique and learn it.

Naruto undid the straps that tied the over-sized scroll to his back, then, while carrying the scroll in both arms, sat down on the damp ground against a particularly large tree.

Slowly, he undid the knot that held the scroll, and unfurled the paper material. As he unraveled the scroll, he began to consider a technique he would like to learn.

_A kickass attack jutsu? Maybe a fire jutsu, or even a lightning one! What to choose, what to choose…_

Naruto continued to read and gloss over the jutsu names that he came across, discarding those he felt weren't worth his time and effort to learn, and keeping in mind the jutsus that met his standards.

_Kage Bunshin no jutsu? Nah, I suck at the Bunshin anyway. And I proved that I can make a Henge that fooled even Iruka, so it's pointless. Next._

_Raiton: Ryuusa Bakurai no jutsu? Sounds cool enough… but it's a class S jutsu. I thought that Mizuki Sensei'd cut it easy for me. Next. _

_Suiton? Gimme a break, water jutsus are lame. Next._

_Kuchiyose? What the heck is that? Summoning? I don't have a fucking contract, whatever that is, you stupid scroll! Next!_

And so Naruto continued to browse the many jutsus that were listed in the Scroll of Forbidden Seals, coming closer and closer to the final jutsus listed in the ancient relic. Naruto unrolled the next portion of the scroll, and glossed over the jutsu on it, before finding them unsatisfactory and moving on to the next section.

It was some time before Naruto looked up from his perusing of the scroll to check the amount of time he had left before Mizuki Sensei would arrive at the rendezvous point; in fact, it was a whole two hours and twenty minutes before he did.

Naruto, upon glancing upon the alarm clock he had brought with him from his apartment, felt a sort of cold feeling wash behind his ears and back, filling up with dread.

_I only have ten fucking minutes! _

Frantically, Naruto dove back into the scroll, and unraveled it further, revealing a further five or six techniques. He hurriedly glanced over them and found a jutsu to his liking (as much as he could care about personal preference, now that he only had ten minutes or less to learn the stupid jutsu).

_Genjutsu, hmm… illusions, right? Well… I'm good at the Henge, so I guess it won't be too hard to master this one jutsu. Lemme see, hand seals, and…_

Several minutes later, the sound of a ninja's padded sandals landing behind him alerted Naruto to Mizuki's arrival.

"Mizuki Sen…" Naruto turned, before his eyes widened at the person in front of him.

"Naruto! What the _hell_ were you thinking when you stole the Hokage's Scroll of Forbidden Seals? _Answer me!_" Iruka's furious voice rang out into the silent night, transfixing Naruto to his current spot on the forest floor.

"Uh… hi, Iruka Sensei?" Naruto stammered out, unsure of how to react. Wasn't Iruka in favor of his retest opportunity? And he hadn't _stolen_ that scroll anyway. Mizuki Sensei had said it was a retrieval mission.

"I said, Naruto, what the _HELL_ were you thinking when you stole the Hokage's Scroll of Forbidden Seals? _You_ crept into the Hokage's office at night, no less, and you steal one of the village's most dangerous artifacts for a stupid little _prank?_ I know you're jealous of the students that passed the test, but this, _this_ crosses the line, Naruto." Iruka's enraged visage made Naruto cringe in fear.

"But… but… Mizuki Sensei said you agreed! That you agreed that I could have a second chance!" Naruto pleaded desperately.

"What on _earth_ are you blabbering on about, Naruto? I haven't seen hide or hair of Mizuki since the Exams! Stop trying to lie your way out of this one!" Iruka rebutted.

"This is my _life_ we're talking about here," Naruto cried, "Mizuki Sensei… Mizuki Sensei said that I would get an extra chance to pass the Genin Exam! He said you'd agreed! He said that if I retrieved the scroll, and I learned a technique from it, you'd let me pass!"

A dead silence followed, Iruka's face becoming furrowed and grim as he processed the information.

"Mizuki really said that to you?"

Naruto paused, then paled in realization.

"You mean that I don't get a second chance? Mizuki Sensei lied? No, you're lying! _You're_ _lying_!" Naruto cried out at Iruka's scarred visage.

"Naruto, calm down. The situation is a lot stickier than you know. Just calm down." Iruka said, trying to calm and placate the now panicking Naruto.

"Shut up! Shut up! _Shut up!_ Mizuki Sensei wouldn't lie to me! He never has, and never will!" Naruto childishly insisted, yelling at the top of his lungs.

"_Calm down_ Naruto. For god's sakes, just _shut the hell up_!"

Naruto was shocked into silence hearing Iruka raise his voice.

"Now, Naruto, we've gotta get moving. I'll take you to the Hokage, and you can explain yourself. I'm with you, Naruto. Just tell him what you told me, and I'm sure he can alleviate any punishment that you might receive. Just calm down, and come with me." Iruka stated.

"But, but Mizuki Sensei said I was supposed to wait here…" Naruto, clearly torn, said.

"That's right, Iruka. He's supposed to be waiting for _me_ here." A gravelly voice rang out from the treetops above the clearing, interrupting whatever Iruka was about to say.

Startled, Iruka turned to face the newcomer to the clearing: the silver-haired Mizuki.

_I didn't even notice his presence._

"So _you're_ the one behind this mess, Mizuki." Iruka said clearly, hiding his shock from the other nin.

"Come on, Naruto. Give me the scroll, and you'll be a Genin! See, I even have your forehead protector all ready back at the Academy! Come on, all you have to do is give me the scroll, Naruto! Come on!" Mizuki said, ignoring Iruka.

Making a sound of annoyance, Iruka turned to face Naruto and exclaimed, "No, Naruto! Don't give it to him. Let's just go back to the Hokage. He'll be able to explain everything to you. So come on; ignore Mizuki. Come with me, and everything'll be all right."

Naruto was confused and very clearly unable to decide between the two possibilities he had laid before him. On the one hand, he had Mizuki, a friend and mentor-figure that had always been there for him, and had never lied to him. However, Iruka had said that he, Naruto had _stolen_ the scroll; and not just any scroll, but the _Scroll of Forbidden Seals_, one of the most dangerous artifacts in the entire village, when he was under the impression that the scroll was merely a testing scroll.

Iruka, while stuck up, strict, and a general bastard all around (at least around him), was not one to lie about such things. But he couldn't discount Mizuki, whom he had always trusted, and counted as a precious person.

Slowly, Naruto started to walk in Mizuki's direction, taking small, but steady steps. Mizuki's eyes were crazed; they were full of anticipation and greed. Naruto winced a little in fear as he walked ever closer to the silver haired Academy instructor.

_Why am I scared of Mizuki Sensei? Why is he so… intimidating?_

One step, then another, and then another followed as Naruto walked forward, unsure of the direction in which he should be walking.

_Maybe Iruka is right. Maybe I should go back to the Hokage. I'm not going to be a ninja anyway now that Iruka has said that that retest was a hoax._

Only a few more meters were left between the tree Mizuki was perched on and where Naruto now stood, the orange-clad ninja student slowly, but surely closing the distance.

_But… I can trust Mizuki Sensei, right? He's always been there for me, all the time. I can trust him. I can…_

"NARUTO!" Iruka's voice suddenly pierced the night, and the confused Naruto swiveled his head towards the forceful sound. Mizuki grinned, seeing Naruto turn his head away, and revealed a large Fuuma shuriken to throw at a moment's notice.

Naruto froze at Iruka's voice, and Mizuki saw his chance.

The silver haired and now crazed chunin let the enormous weapon fly, and it cut the air with a whistling shriek as it spun rapidly towards the small child. A metallic clash rang out into the woodland air as Iruka sped forwards with a _Shunshin_ to intercept the weapon with a kunai of his own.

"NARUTO! RUN! I'll hold him off! Just get back to the Hokage! I'll be right behind you when you get there!" The brown-haired Academy teacher yelled.

Dumbfounded, Naruto could only nod as he stumbled to his feet, and dashed into the dark night of Konoha's forest with the large Scroll of Forbidden Seals, scrambling away in the general direction of the Hokage's Tower.

"Are you sure that was such a smart move, Iruka?" Mizuki smirked at the other chunin, before drawing a pair of kunai from his weapons pouch with a savage grin.

"Now that I see that you're not going to give him back up to the village, I'm pretty damn sure that that was the best course of action I could have taken, _traitor_." Iruka said with barely bridled fury and killing intent.

"Ooh, I'm so scared! The little dolphin is out to play!" Mizuki gestured wildly with his kunai knives, and with a maddened haze in his eyes, continued, "I'll just have to kill you first, and then get rid of that damned Kyuubi brat before he gets to the village."

"I won't let you."

"Such brave words, Iruka. I know you haven't seen actual combat since your early chunin years. I've only just been taken off the active roster three years ago. You're all _rusty_ while I'm still fresh and sharp. Just give up now, and I'll at least spare your life." Mizuki offered.

Iruka hurled a handful of shuriken in response; the keen projectiles lodging into the tree Mizuki was on, as Mizuki flipped onto his hands to avoid the attack. Snarling, Mizuki leapt towards the other shinobi, launching one kunai towards him while raising the other to prepare for a strike at Iruka's neck.

Iruka ducked under the kunai speeding towards him, flicking several more shuriken at his charging opponent. The pony-tailed ninja scarcely had time to recover before Mizuki had caught several of his shuriken and thrown them straight back at him, and charged straight at Iruka's open back while he was dodging the bladed weapons..

Sensing danger, Iruka leapt onto the tree trunk directly in front of him, and vaulted off over Mizuki's head to land a heel kick to the rear end of his cranium; Mizuki, with a bored expression, contorted and twisted his body to dodge the blow, before deftly forming several handseals to activate a jutsu.

"_Doton: Retsudo Tenshou_!" Mizuki cried, slamming his palm to the ground. With a large rumble and groaning, the earth in front of him split in two, causing chunks of rock and dirt to erupt into the clearing.

Cursing, Iruka formed the Ram seal to perform the _Kawarimi_ with a large piece of earth that had landed some distance away from the fissure, avoiding falling into the large crack that had opened up in the ground.

"Did you like that jutsu, Iruka? I learned it when I was in a mission to the Earth country; my _last_ mission, to be exact." Mizuki taunted, now seemingly calm and placid, though his fingers itched towards his weapons.

The scarred chunin shook his head mockingly in a negative reply. He needed to think of a way to immobilize or incapacitate the traitor-nin, and he needed to think of it fast. He had to catch up to Naruto; the child didn't know that the other shinobi of the village were under orders to retrieve the Scroll of Forbidden Seals at any cost. This meant that many of the vengeful ninja who had had it in for Naruto would not hesitate to permanently incapacitate Naruto in order to do so.

No, he _had_ to stop that. No matter how loud or how rude and disrupting Naruto was as a student, he was still _his_ student. Added to the fact that the small boy was also an orphan of the Kyuubi attack twelve years ago, it only reinforced his resolve to swiftly and decisively dispatch the traitor Mizuki in order to do so.

"You're not thinking of running away, are you, little Iruka?" Mizuki called out from the far end of the clearing.

"The thought hadn't even crossed my mind." He replied coolly. He needed to buy some time to think of a way to stop Mizuki. Think. What was Mizuki's objective? It was obviously the Scroll of Forbidden Seals, and not Naruto. So why did he involve the blond boy in the first place?

"What do you hope to accomplish with the Scroll, Mizuki? Is it power, money? Were you a spy all along? Why, tell me dammit, _why?_ Why did you betray your own village, you _traitor_?" Iruka shouted vehemently, hoping to stall for more time.

Mizuki's posture straightened until his back was uncurled and he stood at full height. He slowly breathed out a breath he had been holding in, and then opened his still crazed eyes.

"Answer me!" Iruka yelled.

"Why, you ask, Iruka? Because I'm _sick_ of this goddamn stupid village, that's what!" Mizuki screamed in anger.

"I'm fucking _sick_ of it! Believe in your comrades, don't leave anybody behind, don't kill whenever possible… those rules, this idiotic, soft mentality is the _why_, Iruka! Be kind to others? Bah! My last mission in Earth country, we were assaulted by Rock nin; I was left to fucking _die_ after a rock nailed me in the head." Mizuki said, taking off his bandanna to show a large scar rippling across from his forehead into his scalp.

"_This_ is what was left on me to remind me that your teammates will value their own lives over yours; that's what the shinobi break down to anyway, isn't it, Iruka _Sensei_?" Mizuki mocked.

"Comrades in arms? Don't make me laugh! I was there, dying on a rocky field, and nobody was coming to help me! I was scorned, and abandoned. But that was when a powerful; the _most_ powerful shinobi approached me! He gave me the power to avenge myself, and to take vengeance upon those false comrades. He healed me and gave me power; and he will accept my service when I deliver the Scroll to him!" He yelled, spittle flying from his mouth as he spoke.

Iruka stood in silence, still crouched in a battle stance with a kunai at the ready. Mizuki wanted the Scroll of Forbidden Seals in order to appease this new 'powerful shinobi'. From what the instructor-chunin had said so far, it was vengeance and a fanatical will to be with this third party that pushed him forward.

_How to disable him, though? I'm no match for him physically_

"And Naruto? How does he play into all of this?" Iruka carefully questioned the maddened shinobi.

"Naruto? Oh, the brat. He… was only a means to an end. I befriended him in hopes that he would trust me enough to put in a few good words to the Hokage, but it seems that the Hokage doesn't nearly have enough time for all of the village's _problems_, if you know what I mean. So, I used him. He's the perfect scapegoat, Iruka! Think of it! _He _stole the Scroll of Forbidden Seals, and you know what jutsu lies concealed in _that_ particular scroll, don't you? Everybody hates him. So I used that. Naivety is such an enemy to a shinobi, isn't it, Iruka?" Mizuki told matter-of-factly, with a hint of a barely concealed, malicious undertone.

"So you were only using him all along?

"Of course! Who'd actually give a shit about Uzumaki-fucking-Naruto, eh? Only a fucking retard, that's who!"

'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'

Naruto ran.

He didn't really know why he was running. He knew he was afraid, true, but he didn't really get _why_ he was afraid in the first place.

Why was he running? Was he afraid? Of what? Mizuki Sensei? Why would he be afraid of Mizuki Sensei, who'd always been friendly to him, and had bought him ramen all of those times?

Naruto ran.

_Did Mizuki Sensei lie to me? _

_Iruka said so. But maybe Iruka lied to stop me from getting a forehead protector. Maybe he's just being his regular old bastard self. _

_But Mizuki tried to _kill_ you, Naruto_, a voice within him countered. _You know that how Iruka's treated you over the years can't begin to hold a candle to that._

Naruto saw the logic in his thought processes; and he pondered over the possibility that Iruka had lied to him once more. _But that can't be, because Mizuki Sensei told me that Iruka agreed on the retest. Iruka didn't even know about it. _

He hated not knowing who to trust. He hated being helpless and being thrown around like some child.

He hated being _weak_.

Naruto stopped running. He couldn't tell who to believe and who to not trust. It was all a jumble inside his head, and he needed to make sure, if only to make a decision on _his_ part.

So Naruto stopped, and turned to the opposite direction from that which he was running in. _I've got to make sure. Mizuki Sensei wouldn't lie to me, but he threw that huge shuriken at me. Iruka Sensei hates me, but he tried to save me. _

_Who do I believe?_

So Naruto ran again, the scroll bundled on his back, this time back towards the clearing where, to the best of his knowledge, the two teachers were now fighting; Iruka claimed that he would 'hold Mizuki off' so Naruto could run. But Mizuki was Naruto's friend; he was a precious person.

He wouldn't let either of them be hurt: not on his account.

Iruka wasn't a friend, but he sure as hell had saved him from that huge shuriken. He couldn't let him be hurt, no more than Mizuki, because he needed _answers_.

Naruto ran.

'-'-''-'-''-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'

Naruto arrived, panting, close to the clearing where he had left Mizuki and Iruka, who he could see in the distance. The pair of Academy instructors, he observed, were standing at opposing sides of the cleared woodland space facing each other across a massive fissure in the ground, each with his weapons drawn.

He could hear them arguing over something; he inched closer to the clearing to see if he could discern _what_ they were arguing about. _It could be about my promotion to genin_, his naïve, hopeful side supplied.

"…Naivety is such an enemy to a shinobi, isn't it, Iruka?" Mizuki Sensei was saying maliciously and evilly to Iruka.

"So you were only using him all along?" Iruka interjected.

"Of course! Who'd actually give a shit about Uzumaki-fucking-Naruto, eh? Only a fucking retard, that's who!" Mizuki spat.

_What?_

A sudden wave of nausea washed over Naruto; he felt sick with dread. Mizuki Sensei had only been using him for all of these years? How? Why didn't he notice?

_He… he doesn't care for me… at all?_

Naruto felt dizzy from the shocking influx of information; shock settled in into his childish mind, paralyzing his thoughts and higher mental processes.

_He doesn't care for me. He doesn't give a _shit_ about me._

So shocked was Naruto that he didn't notice a kunai coming straight at him from the far end of the clearing; it was only the resonating clang of another kunai intercepting it that alerted him to its presence.

"Naruto! What are you doing back here! I thought I told you to head back to the village!" Iruka shouted.

Naruto winced at Iruka's explosive voice, but was prevented from answering by Mizuki.

"So… the little blondie returns. Are you _okay_, Naruto? Are you hurt? Do you want to go get some ramen? HAH!" Mizuki tossed in a condescending way, jeering at the young boy.

Trembling, Naruto raised his voice to Mizuki, "What you said…"

"What? That nobody gives a rat's ass about you?" Mizuki cackled.

"Did you really mean that?" Naruto pressed on, fearful for the answer he would receive.

"Oh no, I really _do_ care about you," Mizuki said, sounding sincere, then continuing, "Who gives a _damn_ about you in this entire village, Naruto? Not a single, damn person. The Hokage does, though he doesn't do jack shit about it, but who else? No one, that's who; so no, I don't really care about you either way."

A long silence followed, Naruto's eyes turning from fear to rejection.

"You're… you're not Mizuki Sensei." Naruto fearfully ground out, uncertainty pooling into the back of his mind.

And revelation struck.

_Maybe he isn't Mizuki Sensei. Something's taken over him._

_Then maybe I can help him. I can make him wake up!_

"Oh? I'm Mizuki, all right. The Mizuki who always wanted to kill you for that night twelve years ago. The Mizuki who always burned for vengeance against Konoha. The Mizuki who's going to kill you after using you as a weapon against the damn village!" Crazed eyes burned, then laughed.

"YOU'RE NOT MIZUKI SENSEI! YOU'RE A DEMON IN HIS CLOTHES!" Naruto yelled out, anger at the 'imposter' setting into his blue, cobalt eyes.

A tense silence followed, Naruto glared with a smoldering gaze, now entirely sure in his conviction.

_That can't be Mizuki Sensei. I know it!_

"A _demon_, you say. Oh, I know all about demons, Naruto. Don't you know why all the villagers hate you? Why you have no parents? Why every year, the villagers try to hunt you down on your birthday?"

Iruka paled at what Mizuki was implying.

"MIZUKI! You know that's a forbidden secret! You can't tell him that!" He shouted urgently.

"I know all about _forbidden secrets_, little dolphin. But seeing as you've already called me a _traitor_, then I don't think the village's damn rules bind me anymore! Freedom is sweet, don't you agree, Naruto?" Mizuki told Iruka, making him fall into silence.

Naruto stayed silent, forcing himself to forget that the monster in front of him was Mizuki Sensei. It was not _his_ Mizuki Sensei, but rather something that had taken over him.

"Ignoring me, Naruto? No matter. You know, I've always hated you. From those wretched scars on your cheeks to your careless attitude, I've hated every single ounce of your being! And you know why, Naruto?" Mizuki started slowly moving towards the boy like a predator stalking its prey, waving back and forth in doing so.

_That's not Mizuki Sensei. That's not Mizuki Sensei. That's not…_

"The reason, is…"

"NO! Don't tell him, Mizuki!"

"Oh? So I can't tell him the reason that you've always hated him, the reason you've always been unnecessarily harsh with him, and the reason that you, above all others, pushed for his failure?" Mizuki looked at Iruka with a superior, malicious smirk.

_He must be stopped._

Thinking fast, Iruka flung a kunai at the other nin, desperate to stop him from spilling the S-Class secret he was about to reveal, and charged with a _Shunshin_; Mizuki reacted instantly, driving a fist into Iruka's gut as he came as a bullet towards him, causing him to gag and cough as he spewed his bodily fluids over the forest floor.

In the next instant, Mizuki caught the kunai coming at his forehead by the handle, and, spinning it around on his forefinger before holding it in a reverse-hold. Grinning viciously, he plunged the bladed weapon deep into Iruka's gut.

"IRUKA SENSEI!" Naruto cried, seeing the blood spurt from Iruka's wound.

Mizuki grunted, and kicked the shinobi in the chest, making him crash into a tree, blood now gushing from the open gash on Iruka's stomach. He licked the kunai clean of blood, and then spat the red liquid out into the fissure in the ground.

Naruto forced himself to calm; he would ascertain the validity of Mizuki's statement, whatever it was, later. Right now, he had to get help to Iruka Sensei, and then beat the hell out of Mizuki Sensei to wake him up.

"You know the stories of the Yondaime, Naruto? Of course you do. You know, the one about the Kyuubi!" Mizuki laughed.

Naruto didn't reply as he readied his knuckles for a charge and a slugging to the head.

_I need to do this quickly, for Iruka Sensei._

"All of the stories say that the mighty Hokage killed the Kyuubi, the Nine Tailed Demon Fox in mortal combat, sacrificing his life for the _village_." Mizuki spat, sickened.

"You should know that the Kyuubi isn't dead. In fact, Yondaime sealed it into something."

_One, two, three… charge!_

Naruto leapt forward, running straight for Mizuki with his fists raised high and ready to pummel the older shinobi to the ground.

Unfazed, Mizuki continued, "You, Naruto. He sealed the Kyuubi into _you_. Which means, by extension, _you_ are the Kyuubi."

Naruto froze.

_What?_

"_You're_ the reason I had to be dispatched to the Earth on border patrol. You're the reason Iruka's parents were killed. You're the reason the whole village was ruined twelve years ago!" Mizuki pressed on.

Taking advantage of Naruto's yet-again shocked stature, Mizuki menacingly walked forward towards him, now baring the kunai he just used to mortally wound Iruka in a predatory pose.

"And now that you've brought me the Scroll, I don't need you anymore! Bye-bye, Naruto, and goodbye, Demon!"

Mizuki swung the kunai down; Naruto didn't even notice.

Time stopped.

"_Suiton Hijutsu: Chiba Senshou_!"

A red blade curved instantly towards Mizuki, his kunai in mid-swing. Before the silver-haired nin could react, a razor sharp tail of blood sliced across his face, cutting his skin open across from his left ear to past his nose. His own blood spurted out of the slash on his face.

A blade made of blood wound out of the gash in Iruka's stomach, glistening dark, dark red in the pitch black of the forest. Iruka grinned, though the blood loss had had grave effects on his body, and his face had a ghastly look upon it.

Yelling in pain, Mizuki staggered backwards, clutching his hands to his bleeding face. The blade of blood curved backwards, and impaled Mizuki through the shoulder, weaving in and out his body with ease.

"IRUKAAAAAAAAA!" Mizuki growled viciously, his eyes turning bloodshot and bearing his teeth, ignoring the blazing pains that ran through him.

With a scream of rage, Mizuki turned to the bleeding chunin, and in his madness, did not even activate a _Shunshin_ in his mad charge towards the other nin, pulling the blood blade along with him and impaling himself further in his madness to reach Iruka.

He was almost upon the fallen ninja, when Iruka smiled eerily, and formed a single, one-handed handseal.

"Umino-ryu Hijutsu: Chiba Senshou: Hatsu!" Iruka growled out with his exhausted and fatigued, but still vicious voice.

Mizuki was still howling in rage as the blood piercing him suddenly erupted into flames and exploded in a rush of dark, burning fire. He flew backwards through the air, clawing at the image of Iruka sitting against a tree, fiercely growling and baring his teeth like a beast.

With a huge crash, Mizuki impacted on the hard, cracked ground of the very fissure he had created earlier through his own jutsu. He coughed blood, covered in burns and bleeding from numerous wounds all over his upper body.

Mizuki roared like some wild animal, and pushed off against the rock wall behind him as if he didn't even notice the pain, and flew through the air at Iruka, who had closed his eyes, with his head lolling over to the side.

It was like a slow motion film; Naruto saw Mizuki leap into the air, and ran. Naruto ran as fast as he could, desperate to save Iruka and stop the clearly broken Mizuki.

Yelling like his life depended on it, Naruto sprinted across the clearing towards Iruka; with a cry he leapt, and, feeling a huge rush of power as he did so that filled his veins, instinctively, or perhaps subconsciously, started forming handseals.

Whatever the reason, Naruto's hands blurred in a blaze of red chakra as he saw a red film go over them, and fiery red chakra coursed down into his hands, burning and scorching his skin.

"_Genjutsu: Heisha Shoufuu!"_

The jutsu caused a flash to erupt from his hands, and the bright, white light burst into the darkness of the night. Mizuki yelped at the sudden light burning away at his eyes, and reactively curled his back away from it, unconsciously dropping his kunai blade on the earthen floor of the forest.

Naruto, still carried forward by his momentum, crashed into Mizuki, causing them both to tumble and fall to the ground, rolling away until they crashed into a tree at the edge of the clearing.

Naruto saw stars as he impacted against the wooden trunk of the giant tree; dazed, he saw Mizuki slowly standing up, pushing himself off of the forest floor, blood dripping from his many wounds.

"What…Naruuutoooo… what did you do to me…" Mizuki uttered madly, clawing at his eyes..

The boy desperately reached for the kunai carefully tucked away in his weapons pouch... _if only he could reach it! _The jutsu had apparently failed. He couldn't save Iruka Sensei _or_ Mizuki Sensei at this rate!

"Naaruuutoooo… _what_ did you _dooo_…" Mizuki growled like some unstable creature, turning his head towards the ninja student. His eyes were wide, his pupils contracted, and his eyes were filled with bloodlust and madness. In a burst of movement, he moved towards Naruto, fists and teeth bore in a desperate, furious assault at the boy, orange-red chakra still swirling about him.

Red chakra glowed sinisterly in the night.

It was instinct that moved Naruto, not reason. If he could have described the sensation, he might have said it was whiteness in his mind, where he didn't see, didn't hear; a whiteness where he did not feel anything, yet he could feel his body moving against his will.

Naruto didn't see, didn't feel, didn't hear or smell or taste a single thing. All that surrounded him was whiteness, and he felt something within him creak open, and a voice spoke within his mind.

"_**I thank you, Brat, for this opportunity.**_"

Instinct moved Naruto, but it was not his own.

Red chakra blew about Naruto in a gale, blasting Mizuki away across the devastated clearing. Naruto growled loudly, baring his now hooked, fanged teeth in an expression of fury and bloodlust.

"**Finally! I am **_**free!**_"Naruto cackled in a voice not his own. Grinning like a savage, he continued to reach for the kunai in the pouch at his back, and pulled it out. Red chakra whirled around him in tendrils, eager to strike.

"**A poor excuse for a weapon.**" Naruto said, clearly gazing upon the blade disdainfully. "**But you shall do, little metal tooth**."

Laughing madly, Naruto flung the kunai at the still airborne Mizuki. The ninja didn't even have time to react as it whistled right _through him_, and impaled itself in the trees far behind him.

Naruto leapt into the air covered by bubbling red chakra, following Mizuki, and though he wasn't using the _Shunshin_, easily caught up with the other shinobi in midair.

Still crazily laughing, Naruto drove his now clawed hand right through the wound that had been opened in Mizuki's torso, and grabbed the severed spinal column jutting out of the cavity. Naruto yanked the bone, and Mizuki screamed in utter pain and fear as he felt his life starting to bleed away.

"**Yes, yes, YES! Give me more **_**terror!**_**" **Naruto chanted wildly, and seeing the rapidly approaching tree in front, kicked off of Mizuki's wrecked body, propelling it several inches into the wood of the tree.

Seeing his handiwork, Naruto smiled, then screamed, arching his back in pain, before righting his posture almost instantly, bones cracking and skin starting to burn off as he did.

"W…wh…who…ar…are…you?" Mizuki said feebly, terrified out of his wits and in intense pain, the feel of his last moments suddenly leeching the bloodlust and madness he had just experienced, and replacing it with sheer, absolute _fear_.

"**A weak body my host has.**" 'Naruto' noted, ignoring Mizuki and glancing at his arms and legs after landing. 'Naruto' started to gather the bubbling, burning, _red_ chakra into his right arm nonetheless, grinning a savage grin as he did so.

"**And now, dear human, I must say goodbye, ere my host dies.**" 'Naruto' called out to the trembling Mizuki, before speeding forward towards the quivering ninja, and driving his fist straight through his heart and into the tree behind.

"D…_demon…_" Mizuki breathed in his last breath, before succumbing to his wounds and his lost heart.

'Naruto' laughed, crushing the still beating organ in his hand, and the red chakra swirled about him before dissipating completely and without sound.

Naruto collapsed.

'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'

It was only a scarce few minutes later that ANBU patrol forces found the decimated clearing, with jutsu trails and blood covering the site with splattered gore..

Three bodies were in the clearing; one against a tree, a fatal stomach wound bleeding out on the ground, a second _buried_ into a tree trunk, a hole through his chest and torso, and a third _boy_ covered in blood lay next to a large crevice in the ground.

They leapt into the clearing, carefully observing the bodies, one already radioing in a medic ninja group and an investigative ANBU team.

A green rookie gagged, before regaining his composure.

"What the _hell_ happened here?" A cat-masked veteran questioned rhetorically, before sighing a long, heaving sigh, observing the presence of an oversized scroll left on the forest floor.

"Who's going to go tell the Hokage?"

'-'-'-'-''-'-''-'-'-'-'-'-'-'

**Draft 1 Completed 6/27/07**

**Draft 2 Completed 6/28/07**

A/N:

I'm starting to write up chapter two now; keep in mind that this WILL be a Genjutsu using Naruto, with many abilities on the side. Thanks for reading! Special thanks to Omni (Thundereaper) for letting me bounce ideas off of him, and also beta-reading this chapter.

**Jutsu Inventory:**

Doton: Retsudo Tenshou (土遁：烈土転掌)- A Doton jutsu introduced in canon during the Kakashi Gaiden. This jutsu was used to kill Uchiha Obito, and is considered a basic jutsu amongst Rock chunin.

Raiton: Ryuusa Bakurai (雷遁：流鎖爆雷)- An original jutsu. Causes a chain of high-voltage lightning to move through all living things within range; will continue to move through chakra-sources in a chain reaction. The only way to contain it is by closing the area off of chakra. S-Rank Konoha Kinjutsu.

Suition Hijutsu: Chiba Senshou (水遁秘術：血刃千焼)- Original ninjutsu. The Uminos' secret technique. Utilizes their affinity to water to control their blood's shape and temperature; can only be used outside of the body, and thus only when the user has bled a substantial amount. Last-resort jutsu.

Umino-ryu Hijutsu: Chiba Senshou: Hatsu(海野流秘術：血刃千焼：発)- An advanced technique utilizing the above secret technique. Umino-style secret technique; it flash-boils the blood used in the Chiba Senshou, causing high-temperature flames, and in some cases, explosion as it activates. Last-resort jutsu.

Genjutsu: Heisha Shoufuu (幻術：閉遮招封)- Original Genjutsu. A forbidden technique, this Genjutsu is not an illusion. It uses light as a transmitter, and tricks the mind into believing the body is dead, and vice-versa, thus causing at the least a physical disabilities, and at worst, total death. Is a Kinjutsu for the extreme ease in which it can be performed, as seen in Naruto's activation of the jutsu. Naruto, while activating the jutsu, could not perform it correctly, thus only resulting in a flash of light and disorientation on Mizuki's part.

_**Thanks for reading!**_


	2. Dreams

**A Trick of the Light**

**By Lutris Argutiae**

**Beta: Tenhauser**

AN: Chapter Two finally upped. Sorry for the delay (though there was really no deadline); you know, I had the infamous Writer's Block for half the chapter. I'm still not sure if the fluency is right, but the Beta is good and well, and I can find no fault in it.

And yes! Official Beta! A big round of applause goes to Tenhauser for accepting the post of Beta, and doing a fabulous job of editing (read: reworking) this chapter. Thanks, man!

Bon Appetite

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Chapter 2: Dreams

'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-

Sarutobi decided that he did not like mornings.

It wasn't that he disliked the brisk cool breeze of the morning wind or the soft feel of dew as it gathered in the healthy grass of the Hokage's residential complex, not in the least. He did not dislike the morning coffee that he always enjoyed, or the sinful joy of pouring an extra spoonful of sugar into the bitter drink while avoiding the harrying and watchful eyes of his secretary.

No, the main reason that he now did not like mornings was that he always seemed to receive bad news the first thing in the day, usually with an unfavorable way of being woken up.

For instance, there was the time when he was woken up at the crack of dawn to a harshly panting chunin banging on his door, calling for his help on resolving a frightful mob fight at the annual Yondaime's Honorary Festival. It was five in the morning and drunken sleep-deprived villagers had taken to the streets in a massive brawl.

Then there was that time when one of the newly ninja-qualified Inuzukas had snuck out of her complex at night to perform an advanced human-to-beast transformation along with her canine companion. The foolish child botched the technique; it was way out of her league. Sarutobi was woken up at four in the morning (an ungodly hour, to be sure) to subdue the rabid two-headed creature; a number of fearful villagers were convinced that the jutsu-gone-wrong was the second coming of the Kyuubi.

Then there was the Mizuki Incident, which had occurred just last night.

At first he thought he'd misheard when it was said that Naruto had stolen the Scroll of Forbidden Seals out of his very own office while he was off to the bathroom, he hadn't even noticed it going missing. Was he becoming inept? Was his security so lax? He had paled at the thought.

It was not the question of _how_ Naruto got past the guarded seals on the Scroll's storage that ran through his mind but the possibility of Naruto unlocking the Kyuubi's prison, whether by accident or through means of a quote un quote not-so-accident.

If the Kyuubi was influencing Naruto in any way then it was a grave situation indeed. The bloodthirsty _Bijuu_, if able to manifest its own chakra through Naruto's body, could raze the entire city of Konoha to the ground in less than three hours if it was allowed to do so, much less if it _got loose_ from its prison within the boy.

The Scroll of Forbidden Seals held the figurative and literal key to unlock said prison within its long, long, paper length. The jutsu that was used to seal away the Nine Tailed Demon Fox, the _Shiki Fuujin,_ was the last jutsu that had been written in into the scroll. If the Kyuubi could take control of Naruto's body then it was only a matter of time before it found the sealing jutsu and freed itself from its living prison.

Sarutobi shivered at the thought.

So Sarutobi immediately gave the order for a full mobilization of the ANBU patrol squadrons, and by full mobilization he meant _full _mobilization of all twenty five-man cells. A large contingent of off-duty Chunin and Jounin from all over the village had also gathered at the Hokage Tower by then and he strode outside to send them on their way with orders not to kill the boy or use lethal force unless in a dire emergency.

And they all knew what _that_ meant.

It was a nerve-wracking time waiting for the ANBU teams to reply, waiting for the radio to crackle alive with news of Naruto's condition. Of course he wasn't one to be impatient, given his long years at being alive as both a shinobi of the Leaf and as Hokage of Konoha, but it was Naruto that was at stake at the moment; with Naruto's safety, the village, and even the entire nation's security lay at risk until he was able to defend himself.

The annual and unofficial small-scale 'hunts' that a small number of radical villagers took place in every year on Naruto's birthday were one thing, a few chunins and the matter was settled and Naruto would escape with few to no injuries. The only time he had received a severe injury, in fact, iit had been instantly healed by the Kyuubi's chakra a scant minute later.

While this in itself was a cause for worry, he had called in Jiraiya, who was luckily visiting the village (and simultaneously researching for that wonderful novel of his), to inspect Naruto's seal if there were any malfunctions or cracks in it.

Jiraya's inspection revealed no problems with the Kyuubi's prison.

That was three years ago.

But paranoia was a good thing to be had in rather large amounts when talking of demons; they could not be predicted. He couldn't ignore the possibility that Naruto could be taken over now that he was older and more prone to anger and rage, traits that the Kyuubi was famous for in its attacks on human cities and towns twelve years ago.

The radio crackled. It was one o'clock and, technically, morning, much to Sarutobi's chagrin.

"_Hokage-sama, this is Team 2. We have found the Uzumaki boy in the outskirts of the outlying forest. There is a substantial amount of demonic presence permeating the atmosphere. We have also identified the presence of two Ninja Academy instructors. One is dead; the other is badly wounded. Paramedics and forensics have already been notified."_

"Good job, _Taichou_. Keep guard until I get there." Sarutobi gruffly answered into the transceiver. He turned off the radio communicator and stood up from his comfortable seat in the Hokage's Office. He walked, no, hobbled like the old man he was to the coat rack by the door, donned his robes of office, and placed the angular hat emblazoned with the symbol of fire on his head.

He opened the window, put a foot on the windowsill, and activated his _Shunshin_.

'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-

It was white, Naruto thought, white and comfortable.

It was as if he was floating in a sea of clouds, or was lying on the very beds of the deities above. It was soft, warm, and welcoming. Like a mother's touch, not that he had ever known what that felt like. If he'd ever felt one he could only assume it would feel like this.

Then it was black.

_A shuriken flew at him at top speed, cutting through the air with a whistling shriek._

_Crazed and maddened eyes turned to stare at him, a growling voice chanting his name._

_Blood, blood, and so much blood…_

He shot awake, disrupted from his peaceful slumber by the disturbing images that ran through his head.

Naruto blinked; it was white.

_Where am I? _Naruto thought, puzzled. _Why am I sleeping in a bed? Why are the walls white?_

"Good morning, Naruto-kun." An old tired voice said to him, observing that that he was now awake.

Naruto swiveled his head to the left side of the comfortable downy bed and saw the Third Hokage, Sarutobi, sitting in a hospital chair looking _very_ tired.

"Morning Jicchan," he said sleepily, still puzzled and slightly disoriented, "What time is it?"

Sarutobi sighed tiredly. Did the boy not remember the events of the last night, or was he just so sleepy that he simply did not remember? Or was it the shock of the event?

"It is around eight-thirty in the morning, Naruto. Are you feeling all right?" Sarutobi asked, making sure to sound caring and sincere. Naruto went through a traumatizing ordeal, not even taking into account the demonic killing intent left at the forest clearing and what that might entail.

"Thanks, Jicchan. I think I feel okay. In fact, I don't think I've ever felt better." Naruto paused, and seeing the glass of water on the small cabinet by his bed, suddenly realized where he was. _Why am I in a hospital bed?_ "Why am I in the hospital? Did something happen to me?"

"You mean you don't remember, Naruto?" Sarutobi questioned.

"Remember wha…" Naruto answered partially, before freezing as memories of the night before flooded back into his mind: him stealing the Scroll of Forbidden Seals, Mizuki Sensei and Iruka Sensei fighting, him almost being _killed_ by Mizuki Sensei…

His nightmare… was _real_?

The flashing Genjutsu he had cast, and then the dangerous, rabid look in Mizuki Sensei's eyes, and whiteness; it all flooded into his mind's eye.

"I… I remember, I think." Naruto said, trembling at the sight of his own hands.

_Mizuki Sensei tried to kill me._

"Naruto… _do you remember_?" Sarutobi asked again.

_Mizuki Sensei…no, Mizuki betrayed me._

_He said he hated me._

_Why?_

"I remember," Naruto said shakily, "I remember." _Mizuki betrayed me._

_I trusted him and he betrayed me_.

_He _betrayed_ me; he hated me._

Sarutobi saw Naruto lapse into silence, noticing a dark, lost look in the youth's normally bright blue eyes. Ice settled into the once pristine sunny sapphire and Naruto's eyes darkened into the likes of a deep frozen abyss. Sarutobi shivered; he could not help but do so. Where was the bright and cheerful boy that had gone to take his Genin Exams a scant twenty-four hours ago? Where was the prankster that resided within Naruto, itching to set off a practical joke?

Where was _Uzumaki Naruto_?

"What happened to… to Mizuki Sen… Mizuki?" Naruto queried, unexpectedly startling Sarutobi out of his reverie.

His mind froze; what was he supposed to say to the boy?

_Tell him the truth. Just tell him the truth, and let him think on that. I cannot stay and try to explain things; I cannot. _He should have been used to this, the retelling of a loved one's death to a ninja's friends and family. But for Naruto, Mizuki had meant the world. He was the sole person that had supported him through all of the years of being ostracized within the village, and was very much a parental figure. Sarutobi sighed sadly.

"Mizuki…" He began, "Mizuki is dead. He was killed last night. I'm sorry, Naruto. Iruka, on the other hand, is still alive, but barely so. His health rests on the edge of a knife, I'm told."

"Was it my fault?" _He betrayed me. But I trusted him. I loved him. I owed him so much…and Iruka Sensei as well; he might have been a mean bastard, but he still fought to protect me._

Though the sudden question was unexpected in it's immediacy, it was understandable. Sarutobi knew that the boy would blame himself for Mizuki's death and Iruka's injuries. He couldn't put the answer to Naruto's question to words though, he had done this countless other times for other ninja. Was it because of the semi-parental perspective he had for Naruto? Was it because Naruto was the Kyuubi's jailor, ergo the sole thing keeping it from devastating the village and even the whole of the Country of Fire? He carefully readied his words.

"You had a hand in killing him, Naruto. More than that, I will not say unless you wish for me to continue." The words that came out of his mouth took a century to climb out of his vocal cords and into the air. Regret filled his thoughts in an instant, but Sarutobi steeled his resolve and killed a small bit of his heart to keep himself composed. He would support Naruto however he decided to act, that was all he could do for the boy.

"Was it because of what I did?" Naruto quietly said, his gaze drifting from between Sarutobi's eyes and his hands. "Was it because I stole the Scroll of Forbidden Seals?"

"Do you really want to know, Naruto?" Sarutobi questioned; his eyes were almost empty of his usual compassion and were filled with pure regret and sorrow for what he was about to do.

It took Naruto a while to come up with an answer. Mizuki Sensei was a loved one to him. Perhaps he was the only loved one Naruto had in the village that had stood up for him no matter what had happened. Mizuki had been the only reason Naruto hadn't tried to run away, that he had believed in the village and the fact that the village could _change_, and come to eventually recognize and acknowledge him as Hokage.

But _Mizuki_ had stabbed him in the back, figuratively speaking, and had nearly done the same literally. He had, for all intents and purposes, killed Iruka who, even with his attitude towards him, had tried to help him. He had lied to him, fooled him, and was, in the end, just like all of the other villagers that hated him so much. Why did he do it? Naruto didn't understand; _why did _Mizuki_ betray me and almost Iruka Sensei?_

But now he was dead, and the Hokage said that _he_ had killed him. He couldn't get his answers from Mizuki but he wanted to know why. No, he needed to know why. Why did he turn his back on him? Why did he try to kill him? Why did he hurt Iruka? Sarutobi was offering this information to him, and Naruto would readily welcome it.

"Yes, Jicchan. I want to know; I need to know." Naruto solemly declared.

'"Very well."

_I'm sorry, Naruto, for the truth._

"No, Naruto; he forced you to steal that scroll. That was not a direct factor in his death, even if it did contribute in its own way. In a way, he killed himself with his own actions; he was declared a traitor soon after your retrieval. He attempted to sell the most powerful and secret forbidden techniques out to someone outside of the village. That alone is reason enough for execution to a shinobi."

Naruto blinked hesitantly, and spoke. "Then why did you say _I_ had a hand in killing him? I… Mizuki Sensei…Mizuki… is, was… a precious person. I wouldn't do that!" _He isn't precious anymore_, Naruto realized. Mizuki had utterly, completely, and devastatingly turned his back on Naruto, leaving nothing to his name and then dying on him, deserting him to deal with the mercy of the village on his own. A thought ran across his mind.

_Would I kill him now, if I had the chance?_

_Yes I would,_ a voice, _the_ voice, within him said from somewhere in his heart. _I would kill him. He betrayed me. He told me that he hated me. He rejected me. He didn't care for me at all. _

_And I trusted him and loved him._

_But he betrayed me, and even tried to kill me. He tried to kill me, and he tricked you into stealing that scroll. Why wouldn't you kill him? Why wouldn't you want to hurt him and rip his flesh off his bones and eat his innards alive? Why? Why? Why?_

"Mizuki was killed by you; that much we can tell. Or rather if you will, by _something_ that used_ your body _to kill him in a particularly gruesome manner. We found him buried in a tree, Naruto." Sarutobi told the boy darkly. _I'm sorry, Naruto. But you must know. _"We know your body killed him, because you were found holding what remained of his heart in your hands and covered in his blood when we found him."

_Good riddance,_ the voice said again. Naruto, though initially shocked that he would be thinking of the dead ninja in such a harsh way, was inclined to agree. Mizuki had been treacherous; he had gotten close to him feigning concern for him, and in the end, what did it result in? Being used as a scapegoat for a crime that would _result in death_ at the minimum, and then almost being killed and being saved in the nick of time through an unlikely circumstance. _Had_ Mizuki Sensei really cared for him anyway? He had been there for him when he had needed it, he supposed, but he had been doing fine on his own before he had met the Academy teacher, aside from the occasional chase and attack within the village.

But he had the skills to run away, didn't he? Why did Mizuki Sensei befriend him in the first place?

"_No one gives a shit about Uzumaki-fucking-Naruto, that's who!" _Mizuki had said last night.

If that was true, then it was only because Naruto was useful to Mizuki Sensei that he was kept alive. He had tried to kill him when he had gotten the Scroll to him; there was no more use in having him alive left to Mizuki, and so the shuriken had come flying towards him.

It was only because Iruka Sensei had interfered that he had been able to run away, and after that, only because of the power of the Genjutsu that he had used, and…

A pause of silence followed, and something nagged at Naruto's mind.

"_Something_…? What do you mean, _something_, Jicchan?" Naruto asked, puzzled and troubled at the same time. Sarutobi merely glanced up at Naruto's face and held his hands across his temples and rubbing them in circles in deep thought. A rush of insight sounded in Naruto's mind; the rushing sound of wind blowing in his ears echoed in his head and surrounded him as a sense of foreboding came over him, and Naruto _realized_.

"_Kyuubi…_"

Alarmed at the revelation that Naruto already knew about the demon, Sarutobi sighed in resignation, already regretting his decision to tell Naruto the whole truth. It was inevitable that he would learn, he knew, but at this early age…

"You already know, Naruto?"

"Mizuki Sen…" _He doesn't deserve to be called Sensei anymore_. "Mizuki told me."

"Very well." Sarutobi sighed resignedly. Mizuki's actions had had very, very serious consequences indeed. He had expected to have to reveal the truth about the Kyuubi to Naruto eventually, instead it appeared that the wayward Chunin had gone out of his way to make Naruto's life progressively harder for him until he ultimately killed the child that night. He breathed deeply, and then continued.

"The Kyuubi gained control of your body for a very short instance. It was given one very short time period and it killed Mizuki, a proficient Chunin, in the blink of an eye. You understand the gravity of the situation, don't you, Naruto? The fact that the Kyuubi was even able to take over your body in the first place suggests a weakening in the seal the Yondaime placed on you."

Naruto paled, feeling the blood rush from his face, and nodded. That was a dangerous thing indeed, he agreed silently. He wasn't one for long vocabulary but he got the gist of it even in his depressed state. The Kyuubi _took over_ him, and that meant that something was wrong with the seal; the same seal that kept the demon from razing the village and wreak havoc over the town.

_Do I care? _

Mizuki, in the end, it seemed, was only the last in a long line of villagers who had hated and despised him. While his faith in humanity and the village was not so low that he would believe the whole of the village was against him, he knew that mostly all of them had a distasteful opinion of him bordering on complete apathy. Mizuki was one of those who would hate him instead of merely ignoring him.

In other words, no one in the village would acknowledge him. His dream of becoming Hokage sounded ridiculous now, Naruto thought. If no one even noticed or cared about him, then what was the point in trying to be acknowledged? People would always hate him and distrust him, he could see now, no matter how much he was loved in another place. He had been utterly betrayed and stabbed in the back by Mizuki, whom he had thought he had known well, considering the lengths of time they had been together.**. He had come to trust, and even love Mizuki as a brother or father, and he had thought Mizuki had cared for him as well.**

But, evidently, doing so was the wrong thing to do.

He had trusted Mizuki and all that had resulted in was the total betrayal and a knife in the back, just like all of the other times before that when villagers had turned away from him.

With a start, Naruto realized that no one would stop to care for him any more, ever. _Ever_. Aside from the Sandaime, who was too busy to actively care for him, only Mizuki had ever helped him, leaving him totally helpless without Mizuki's presence.

But Mizuki was a traitor to both the village and to Naruto. He now knew that he wouldn't be able to trust any body except the Hokage. Anyone, and absolutely anyone who wanted to get close to him, had the potential to be another Mizuki. He couldn't afford to let himself be that vulnerable ever again.

Forget his dream about becoming Hokage, Naruto thought solemnly. None of the villagers would accept him, he now knew after his revelation. People were two sided and treacherous, no matter what they said and did otherwise. The villagers wouldn't come to acknowledge his presence as a person or as a ninja. Half of them despised him as a demon (or more specifically, the demon's container) and the other merely chose not to recognize or even notice that he was there.

No, Hokage didn't matter much at all anymore to him, Naruto thought. Power; power to protect himself and his thoughts and ideals was what he wanted now. If the villagers wouldn't come to like him, or even acknowledge him, then he would become strong enough that it wouldn't matter what the damn villagers thought. He would trounce anything that came across his path and continue to stand strong no matter what came to him, he decided.

Power was what the Demon gave him last night, he realized with a trembling start. Although malicious and evil, the Kyuubi had killed one that had betrayed and crushed his trust and dreams in his place. If he could use that power to defend himself and exact revenge for himself then he didn't much mind having that power. That the Sandaime had declared that his seal was unstable was one thing, but if that instability was the thing that had unleashed the Kyuubi on Mizuki last night then he didn't want to get rid of it. He never knew when he would need the strength after all.

He would become powerful, that much was decided for Naruto, inhibitions against the Demon be damned.

Naruto turned to face the Sandaime, who had noticed his long internal monologue and had thoughtfully stayed quiet, and spoke.

"I don't think the seal's loose, Jicchan."

Sarutobi was at first astonished that those were the first words out of the small boy's mouth, but calmed him self. Perhaps the boy was right, he thought. The seal was designed by the Yondaime Hokage; a man that he respected in the arts of sealing as being considerably more advanced than any still alive, even including Jiraiya and Orochimaru. The last time the Kyuubi had exerted its influence through the seal, it had been fine. Though caution was always a good thing to use in considerable amounts whenever a Tailed Demon was concerned, it wouldn't hurt to trust Naruto on this one. The boy would become a shinobi, he had decided that the moment he had received the report that the boy had killed Mizuki. Not only for coming out alive of a boiling situation with two Chunin and protecting a rather large Scroll from harm through it all, but for being able to use a jutsu from its lengthy pages.

An autopsy had revealed that a Genjutsu had been used on Mizuki, one that's results indicated that it was rather high-end and advanced. Mizuki couldn't have used it and Iruka didn't have the aptitude for the illusion jutsus. There was no report of any other shinobi that had been there; there were only four chakra presences noted at the scene, including the overwhelming latent killing intent left by the Kyuubi. Sarutobi himself had verified this information.

Which meant that there was only one person who could have used the advanced Genjutsu, one that was _unknown_ to the medic team. That Naruto had used an unknown Genjutsu meant that he had learnt it from the Scroll of Forbidden Seals, given the complete lack of training the observatory ANBU team had observed from the boy.

Such talent for illusions could _not_ go to waste, as there were not many who had the aptitude for it, if he had in fact cast the Genjutsu.

He would verify this immediately, Sarutobi told himself.

In any case, if the boy were to be a shinobi then he would need a stable mind as well as a good sense of direction if he were to avoid becoming a rogue like Mizuki. This meant that he needed to condition Naruto mentally as well as not messing with the Kyuubi's seal too often, as the two were intertwined given the nature of both the seal and the demon. If the seal _was_ loose, he couldn't perform any sort of inspection himself for fear of agitating it with his insufficient talent and experience with the seal.

This meant that he had to track down Jiraiya solely for the purpose of inspecting Naruto's seal, and he currently didn't have the resources to do so. So he decided to trust Naruto to keep the lid on the beast for just a little while longer.

A strong mind was needed to keep the demon reigned in, Sarutobi knew, and if Naruto had indeed been the one to cast the advanced Genjutsu on Mizuki, then it was logical that he be trained in the illusionary arts. They were infamous for requiring formidable mental ability, and with Naruto's possible potential before him Sarutobi was sure that Naruto could both keep the seal in check and master Genjutsu before he could locate Jiraiya, provided that he possessed the talent.

"Very well," Sarutobi said finally, "I have a question for you, Naruto."

"What is it?" Naruto asked, still contemplating on his thoughts of getting stronger. He _needed_ power, but he didn't know what to do to gain it. It didn't matter that he was still stuck in the hospital; he yearned to train, and be stronger. _To never be hurt again._

"Did you use a jutsu against Mizuki? And if you did, do you remember what it was?"

Naruto paused to think for a minute as he remembered the technique that he had used; it was a Genjutsu, an illusion, if he remembered correctly. He voiced his thoughts to the old man sitting before him.

_As I thought._ Sarutobi mentally breathed a sigh of relief. He could now trust Naruto with holding the Kyuubi's seal in check, as well as set his path as a shinobi straight. With his dismal jutsu performance at the Ninja Academy, it was worrying what kind of ninja Naruto might have grown into if he _had_ passed the exam the first time around. But Naruto had displayed his talent for the illusionary arts in his battle with Mizuki,

_Then Naruto, for your future, and the safety of the village, I will make you a ninja._

A gentle morning breeze blew in through the half-open window, and Naruto was momentarily struck by the intent in Sarutobi's eyes, determined, and powerful. The aging Hokage dug into one of his inner pockets and grasped the item he was looking for.

"Naruto," He started seriously; the moment seemed to freeze for Naruto, as silence seemed to fill his mind and being. Finally, after what seemed like hours of tense silence, Sarutobi's voice rang out clearly into the hospital room.

"_Are you ready to be a ninja?"_

Naruto then realized. He wanted power to protect himself, to not rely on others and to be able to stand for himself against all odds. He wanted to be able to ignore any attempts at betrayal thrown at him from any and all sides. He wanted _power_; power for himself, to use for himself, and only for himself. To do that, he needed to be a shinobi. A ninja of the Village Hidden in the Leaves and damn everything else.

He needed to be a ninja.

Sarutobi pulled his arm out of his Hokage robes, and held out a metal band attached to a navy blue length of cloth.

_A hitai-ate_.

The rising sunlight glinted with an orange glare off of the polished metal band, and the Leaf insignia etched onto the forehead protector shone proudly upon burnished steel. Naruto gazed upon the metal piece with an unidentifiable look upon his face, before his expression solidified in a determined, focused gaze. He reached out with his hand and grasped the _hitai-ate_ with a solid grip.

"I'm ready."

'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-

Yuuhi Kurenai was a newly appointed Jounin of Konoha, only having passed the Konoha Jounin Exams only six months ago. She was rather acclaimed in certain ninja circles as a master, or was it mistress, of genjutsu, the art of illusions and perceptions; even the Hokage himself had claimed that she had the 'best genjutsu talent' in the Hidden Village of the Leaf in a long while.

She could be arrogant and declare herself beautiful as well; she knew she had a certain appeal to most members of the opposite sex, and she knew how to use it to achieve her goals most effectively on top of that. She wasn't _too_ arrogant (or so she liked to think, given that most shinobi tended to be arrogant whether they thought so or not; she didn't like to deal with absolutes), so she didn't think of herself as a particularly beautiful member of the female race. She knew there were many more that were much more appealing.

She _was_, however, one of the younger and better looking of the Leaf's female Jounin, that much she acknowledged.

Her rather unnatural red eyes often frightened ignorant villagers; they were, however, useful for intimidating her opponents as well as using them as a medium for her rather spectacular illusionary genjutsu and phantasms. Her genjutsu skills were virtually unmatched within the currently active rosters of Konoha shinobi; this encompassed all fields of Genjutsu and not merely illusions and fantastic images. Even her hand-to-hand combat style revolved solely around the art.

She was a _master_ of Genjutsu after all.

Or course such talent was rare, only popping up in Konoha once every ten to twenty years. While talented Genjutsu users emerged frequently, not many went much ahead of phantasms and standard illusions, not having the aptitude or will to pursue what lay beyond the standard conceptions of Genjutsu.

If only she found another with as much potential as she did, Kurenai mused to herself while she lifted her leg and crossed it over the other.

Kurenai was currently sitting in the Hokage's office along with a number of other Jounin; it was lucky for her, she supposed, that the Third Hokage had selected her as a Jounin teacher for the newest batch of Academy graduates. As a relatively green Jounin, she said to herself as she walked down the bustling streets, this was a very good opportunity for her career, as well as a chance to have a hand in possibly passing on her Genjutsu skills to the next generation of shinobi.

Oh, she was getting _old_.

The Hokage coughed loudly amongst the small chatter between the shinobi that had been assembled, gathering their attention towards him. Immediately, the whispers in the room ceased and the Jounin all shuffled to attention.

"You know why you have been summoned here today." The Hokage stood up from behind his desk, his small stature filling the room with surprising power. The Hokage had his arms clasped behind his back and looked at the gathered Jounins from under the brim of his hat.

"You are here today to receive your Genin team assignments. This year has shown exceptionally high-level students, and we have twenty hopefuls graduating from the Academy this year, as you might have gleaned from the number of shinobi present here today." He paused.

The Hokage continued on, seeing the questioning eyes in some of the Jounin.

"While this in itself is not so unusual, there is another issue we must address before we progress to the team assignments. With the current graduating class, one team will have only two Genin; this is a problem. While it is possible to supplement their numbers with an additional Genin off of the roster, there is… another, rather _exceptional_, student that I believe can fill the spot. He failed the Genin Exams, but I believe him ready to enter the ranks of our shinobi. His name is Uzumaki Naruto."

Immediately, a great majority of the shinobi present protested in an uproar. Uzumaki Naruto, the host of the Nine Tailed Demon Fox, a shinobi of the Hidden Leaf? Never! What if he betrayed the village? What if the Kyuubi-brat decided to continue _his_ attack on the village? What if he went on a rampage and rose up in a coup? Irrational paranoia and panic ran through the minds of a number of shinobi present.

"Silence!" The Sandaime ordered strongly. "I know how all of you must be thinking why this old fool would seriously recommend the Kyuubi's _jailor_ for Genin rank. I'm sure you have heard of yesterday's debacle, during which Naruto was tricked into stealing and learning a rather advanced jutsu from the Scroll of Forbidden Seals." Immediately scoffing whispers could be heard from a few of the ninja.

"Given the time of theft to the time of contact with the traitor, he had only a scant two hours and a half to learn the technique. Even so, he was able to cast one of the advanced Genjutsu contained within the Scroll effectively enough that it resulted in the death of the traitor in question. I'm sure you have no objections to accepting such a promising young shinobi with gifted Genjutsu talent into our ranks, yes? After all, it would be foolish to ignore a mere _child_ who has managed to learn a forbidden Genjutsu technique and acquire it for his own jutsu arsenal in under three hours." He glanced at Kurenai as he said so.

A tremor ran through the Jounin. Would she train the infamous 'Kyuubi-brat'? He was reportedly a very rambunctious child who was barely passing his classes in the Ninja Academy, with almost zero potential; his terrible attitude to teacher-figures and his love for setting up pranks and traps were a teaching shinobi's nightmare, according to the rumor-mill.

If the Hokage was telling the truth, then the boy had a tremendous talent for Genjutsu. An illusion that resulted in death? Those kinds of jutsus were very high-end material, Kurenai knew. While she was sure that the Hokage had embellished the deeds of the young student a small amount considering his progress at the Academy, this was not the kind of situation where she expected the old man to downright lie or deceive them.

No, the Hokage was telling the truth.

That the boy _had_ cast whatever illusion (that was way out of his league, or any in the Academy's graduating roster, for that matter) was testament to his potential. Kurenai was now a Jounin, and nearly twenty-eight years old. She was currently right in the prime of her career and she _knew_ that those with Genjutsu talent were not common; this was an opportunity that could not be missed. If she did not train Naruto, she would have to wait perhaps five, maybe ten, more years until one with a similar amount of potential would appear. By then, she would be well out of her prime and beginning to spiral down into the inactive roster, unfit to train a young and aspiring shinobi in her fighting style and Genjutsu.

While teaching and training a regular team until they reached Chunin proficiency was a very good and appealing goal for her, Kurenai was desperate to find an apprentice that she could teach all of her art to.

Kurenai nodded minutely at the old Hokage in acceptance, and saw him nod his own head at her in response. It was decided, it seemed. The Hokage had all but declared that she, Yuuhi Kurenai, Jounin of Konoha and a master of Genjutsu, would train Uzumaki Naruto to follow in her footsteps as a proficient user of the illusionary arts.

The Sandaime proceeded to assign the teams to the new instructors-to-be as Kurenai fell into thought. She now had her prodigy; it was up to her now to train him to the best of her ability.

_Uzumaki Naruto… what kind of student will you be?_

'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-

**A.N.-**

**Here's Chapter Two. No new jutsus this time, as I didn't have any need for them this chapter. However, there were a few issues with how I conveniently forgot to actually translate the jutsus last chapter, so I shall do so now.**

**Chiba Senshou: Blood Blade of a Thousand Burns**

**Chiba Senshou: Hatsu: Same as above: Erupt **

**Ryuusa Bakurai: The Flowing Chains of Explosive Lightning**

**Heisha Shoufuu: Close and Disconnect; Seal Bringer**

**Those would be roughly what the techniques themselves mean. Keep in mind that I start with the Japanese instead of translating from English, if this seems unsatisfactory. **

**Another comment I received detailed that how my description of the Heisha Shoufuu didn't make sense, since, being a Genjutsu and all, it HAD to an illusion. I said wasn't, and technically, it isn't. I'll explain more later, just bear with me. **

**At any rate, I hope the chapter was enjoyable; honestly, the words did NOT flow this time around. Last chapter was a walk in the park (who came up with that anyway? Parks are full of bicycles trying to run you over. Who said that was easy, huh!?), with the words just rolling, but you know.**

**The excuse every writer uses. Yeah. THAT one.**

**In different news, the new Naruto chapter looks promising; finally, a hot Akatsuki chick appears! Now if Ino would just…**

**Anyway. Next chapter will encompass Genin Team Assignments, and the true Genin Exam, in which Kurenai will reveal a part of her battle style and Naruto shall be whipped. Maybe some more if I can fit it in. **

**Until next time, and sorry for the somewhat long AN. I KNOW the total AN length is more than 1/20****th**** the chapter, but what can I say?**

**Lutris**


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